SFFaudio Challenge #6

THE CHALLENGE:
This is our 6th Annual SFFaudio Challenge. Every November 11th, for the last six years, we’ve offered the following challenge to SFFaudio readers:

“We’ll give you an audiobook if you make one for everyone else.”

That deal still holds. We’ll get you an audiobook if you make make an audiobook out of one of the public domain etexts we suggest. All you’ll need to do is claim a title (by email), record the audiobook, using your own human voice (sorry no robots), and follow the rules (see the first comment of this post for the rules). Some titles will not be public domain in all countries, but this is a global challenge. We’ve also added, for the very first time, a French language title!

Still feeling a little unclear on how it all works? Then have a look at our past SFFaudio CHALLENGES:

PRIZES:This year we’re doing something a bit different with prizes, something better. Instead of offering those unwieldy physical copies we’ve got DRM-FREE MP3 downloads for you! This not only saves us on postage it also allows for a much greater selection of audiobooks! For each audiobook you complete, you can choose one of more than 1,300 titles available! All prizes this year come courtesy of Tantor Media.

1. GENERAL RULES:
1a. In order TO CLAIM A TITLE you will need to contact me (Jesse Willis) AND explain which of the titles you’d like to narrate (and why). You can leave a comment, or send me an email with the subject line “SFFaudio Challenge #6.”

1b. Please BE SURE TO set a tentative schedule for completion. Only when you do this will I then mark the entry as “claimed”.

1c. Your recording must be NARRATED by a single individual, be complete and unabridged. When completed it must be made available to the public, either for free and/or purchase.

1d. With regard to multiple CLAIMS: A claimant must complete and release his/her first title prior to making another claim.

2. COPYRIGHT: I cannot absolutely confirm that these titles will be out of copyright in your country. In fact, some of them probably aren’t PD in your country. The two George Orwell titles, for example, will be especially unlikely to be PD in all countries – do some research before you make your claim, this is a big project. Obviously titles would are best hosted (or marketed) in the countries where they are PD. But any audiobook produced and released in good faith will be eligible for a prize. If after completing your research and your project you find evidence that your title was not PD in your country, you are STILL ELIGIBLE to win a prize. In such cases, where a completed audiobook cannot be publicly released for such reasons, you will still need to prove to me that it was actually completed.

3. ENTRIES ARE JUDGED only upon completion and release. If release is in the form of a serial posting via podcast the audiobook WILL NOT be deemed completed until the entire story, essay, novella, novelette or novel has been posted.

3a. Completion time is judged by notification in my email showing where it can be immediately downloaded and/or physical receipt of proof of completion (MP3-CD, etc.) along with evidence that it is available for purchase.

4. RELEASE may be through Audible.com, LibriVox.org, Podiobooks.com, or via your own podcast, AND/OR via commercially available CDs or an mp3-cd (or anywhere else available to the public). You can make your recording public domain, like many challengers have done, or release it commercially. We don’t care how you release it, we just care that it gets released.

5. IN ORDER TO QUALIFY for a Challenge Prize you’ll need to get me a copy of the audiobook and show its availability to others – in other words it must actually be released and be shown to be released. Prize winners are judged based on the time of release, not the time you get a copy to me. So, if you’re planning on releasing a complete novel, and you want to spread the podcast of it over six months, your entry will be eligible only after the final chapter is released. If you plan on selling it at retail, at a swap meet, or on your own website, great, but until someone can actually buy it your audiobook is not considered “released.”

6. PRIZES this year are being coordinated by me, Tantor Media will provide us with a redemption code which I will pass on to you.

7. CONFLICTS:

7a. CLAIM CONFLICT: A potential claimant to a title will be successful by being the first person to follow all the rules in their contact with me.

7b. PRIZE CONFLICTS: There should be no prize conflicts this year as we are allowing you your own choice of more than 1,300 audiobooks available at Tantor Media’s download store.

7. MORE ABOUT COPYRIGHT: Here are some general rules we used in compiling this Official Challenge Titles list: In Canada: Copyright expires 50 years after the author’s death (50 years ‘post mortem auctoris’). In the USA: All copyrights prior to 1923 have expired. Stories written between the years 1923-1963 may or may not be in the public domain. If copyright was renewed, works copyrighted between the years 1923-1963 are still under copyright for an additional 95 years. All works copyrighted between 1964-1977 are copyrighted for 95 years. All works copyrighted between the years 1978 and 2007 are copyrighted for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. Australia: Copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death or 50 years after the author’s death if that death occurred prior to 1955. The United Kingdom: Copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death. All titles listed, are to the best of our knowledge, public domain somewhere on this planet.

8. SFFaudio reserves the right to revise the rules and strike titles from the Challenge Titles list as appropriate.

I am very interested in reading H.P> Lovecraft Supernatural Horror in Literature. He has been my favorite author since I was in grade school and while I have heard this work referenced, I have never read it. This will get me the chance to get very familiar with it and record it at the same time. I can get it done by december 15th. If this piece is already taken, my second choice would be the Fritz Leiber piece “No Great Magic”. He is my second favorite author and his older works are especially entertaining to me. The deadline would be the same.

I am very interested in the challenge, but curious about the timeframe needed. I work full time and am in grad school full time. My semester is ending soon. Would it be ok to set a return date in early to mid December? Or is this taking too long?
Thanks.

Sorry I’ve been out of touch for so long. Due to a crazy schedule at work and still getting settled in our new home in Houston, I haven’t recorded in a while. Thought I might get started again with “Writing Class.” It’s so short, I’ll do it today. Since it is so short, I don’t need to be entered into the contest. Consider it a thanks for your ongoing support.

Erin-Joi, once you pick a title, you can figure out approximately how long you think it will take to record and proof, and then figure out a release mechanism. You will set your own schedule. Typically most folks who are new to the process go with LibriVox, as they can help you through the process.